AllCast Returns To Chromecast

Chromecast is Google’s bid to take over your TV, of course, and Google keeps improving it. One of the most interesting stories, though, is not what’s coming to Chromecast, but what’s coming back. Yep, Chromecast has gotten back a beloved app, thanks to the SDK.

Love Lost Among The ‘Casts

AllCast was originally a popular app for Chromecast users not least because it was the most flexible, often described as “AirPlay for Android”; AllCast, for five bucks, lets you stream anything you’ve got stored on your Android phone to essentially any box that sits on, around, or under your TV and can accept a WiFi signal. Roku, Apple TV, game consoles, DNLA renderers, you name it, it can work with AllCast.

Except Chromecast. It worked at first, but the lack of a software development kit, or SDK, ultimately made support too difficult, and AllCast had to drop the support until an SDK came along.

Support At Last

Fortunately, support was on the way. Probably the most interesting point of all this is that Google, which just essentially freed the Chromecast to support anything people want to do with it, made it so simple to do that the app’s developer admits that it took him almost no time to update his app with Chromecast support. In less than twenty minutes, the app was improved, the update was pushed out, and overjoyed Chromecast users could once again put up all the photos they wanted at parties.

Take To The Air

True, there are no lack of streaming options for the Chromecast, and it does a good job of interacting with Android devices and laptops. But AllCast is still the quickest and the most effective option, and honestly, it’s nice to have it back. And if the Chromecast is this easy to develop for, things will get interesting fast in streaming video.